mpchi

Looks more like the 1S needs a bathroom run.

Oops. Forgot this one. I wouldn't suggest to loosen the shoulders. Why? They wear off on their own. If you are lucky, then they wear off evenly on both sides. For some, the tightness wear off really fast. For me, they take a while, but eventually became looser after a good amount of posing. But the weird thing I notice is, sometimes when it gets loosen, its happens very fast, almost as if some paint inside the ball or plastic in the socket got scraped off in a couple incident. Or just the screw get loosen. This happens to my left shoulder, got significantly looser in a day, at a certain angle. Lucky, its still decently tight, and pretty even to the right shoulder still for the most part. But compare to brand new, its much looser now. So it may be a blessing when they are both very tight still. But if you really want to loosen them, just keep twisting the ball joint back and forth a bunch of times (while holding the 5 dots square block...you don't want to break the screws there like a few others, especially the left shoulder block, just in case) and it will get looser. Just make sure you don't rub off the shoulder markings by accident. The back screw is shut tight by the circular cover, so there is no way to access the screw, unless you pry or drill out the cover. While I don't suggest doing this on VF-25 (since the shoulder screw is not accessible), seeping in some oil on the ball joint can quickly loosen the joint by reducing friction. But its a non-reversible loosening if you can't open the joint and wipe off the oil/grease. But might work well in other cases. Hope that helps.

The head lasers of mine angled in, as well as 90% of the pics I've seen. Its possible that Bandai fixed this minor issue with the second run? The angled out lasers help make it look better, as well as the way the chest is arranged in that pic, with the shoulder(right besides the neck) flush and chest sticks out more and showing the 'belly button' dot. Looks better, but don't think its that stable in that state when you handle the figure and neck tends to collapse easy, as there are room for the chest and back to move around. Most of the time, in more stable positions, the 'belly button' dot on the nose cone shouldn't be showing.

I actually like that idea very much.

Yeah, wonder what is keeping Yamato from doing the Reactive Armor as well. Since the GBP is such a popular item, don't see what there is none for the VF-0S...unless Yamato can foresee the shoulder won't be able to hold them LOL. But with the ver.2 shoulders, I thought things should be fixed by now(still hoping to get mine fixed through Overdrive). A set of Reactive Armor would be really cool. Definitely get a set.

Me wants VF-22 Max. Hope its just a matter of time when Yamato would get to this one. While I like the YF-21/VF-22 design a lot, reminiscent the Q-Rau, the colors are not quite my likings to keep me from purchasing one. But if Max is on, I am all for it.

Clearcoat may help to an extend, but won't be a real remedy, since the issue is how weak the paint latching onto the smooth plastic surface. So while it reduces direct contact on the paint, any harder rubbing or scraping from your hand or from parts during transformation will still lift the paint off. Also, depends on how good you applying the clear coat, it may add new blemishes to the look, if lets say you accidentally got a few bubbles on the surface during your spray. And clearcoat gets rubbed off too if you handle the figure too much. I was being real careful on my Alto, but still got a bit small scratches/rubbing on the letters. Then with the added Fast Pack, things got worse as there are more fiddling to be done when you transform or pose the figure. End up more severe scratches on the markings on the Fast Pack. So now, I am just gonna 'man handle' my Alto and not worry about it no more. Its too hard to avoid them completely, unless you don't fiddle with it at all. When my Armored VF-25S Ozma come, I'll treat it as a display piece, while Alto will be the one to be played with.

Wouldn't be bad if its 3000yen pre-built toy, with Hikaru & Minmay, and inner details and removable panels similar to the VF-1 Fast Pack's fashion. Then it would be a nice special piece that worth the cost. But as it is now, I don't really see whats so great about it being a model kit, other than the obvious reason of 'cutting the cost'. Guess the motto "If you don't like it, don't buy it" will apply. And I know I am not buying this one.

Excluding the fact for being an exclusive, 3000yen for a 12cm simple plane unpainted plastic model kit is asking a bit much.

Or make the peg and slot much bigger and deeper. Like how those fold out pegs connecting the feet or legs of SOC Voltes, Ideon, or something similar. Its too tiney and prone to wear as is, just like the tiny hooks on the Fast Pack hip armor. Way too small and shallow...

The crotch peg on mine clicks and holds pretty good. But ever since I got the Fast Pack, the extra weight start to wear it out more and disengaged more frequently. So I add some thin layer of super glue to the T-shape peg (think its safer on the peg, than the slot, in case the glue mess up the tiny hook on the slot and doesn't catch as well later). It helps, but gets wear off pretty easy after a few attachments. I find using the display stand for battroid mode helps to ease the wear a lot as it support the wieght dramatically, as long as you hip ball joint is tight enough to not have the legs dangle around. Which you can also fix by add some food/plastic wrap around the balljoint to add more friction.

Wish it comes in like this, as I find the red clear parts on the promo pics not going as nice with the black and yellow, even though its accurate. Is this an earlier Yamato prototype? Or a custom?

Gunbuster 2 is actually very good, once you passed the fact that the show feels quite different from the first. Its very well drawn, has some comedy elements, and packed with over the top actions and battle sequences. And its a show that Gunbuster fans finally 'get it' when they watched up to the end, and quit the b*tching. Just too bad the Bandai U.S. DVD releases were sold in ridiculous high price (something like $40 per volume with two 30 min episodes), scaring off a lot of potential buyers. Not sure if there was a price drop later or a box set. As of myself, I am watching Guyver the 2005 TV series. Decent production value and best drawn Guyver series to date, but still lower quality in animation than higher profile TV shows (e.g. Macross F). Well drawn and consistent throughout the whole show, if not the action sequence sometimes felt limited, due to budget or time constrain. But they did improved the storytelling quite a bit compared to the original manga. So a good watch for Guyver fans or people that like the Henshin genre and don't mind some bloodiness. Also attempted again to continue on Macross 7. Hope I get to finish it this time (almost half way through now). The recycled animated sequences can really get annoying though after you've watched it like the 10th times or so.

I have both valks and the seeker. I think the valks are prettier toys to look at overall (better designed curves and flow of shapes), more fun to play with and have more modes, options, and add-ons, and comes in more flavors in designs. But they are also very delicately designed, regardless of QC. There are a lot of small thin parts that you can snap the wrong way if not careful. Seekers on the other hand excels at that, like many transformer toys. Build with sturdier thicker parts, and a blockier build and look overall. You won't break the MP Seeker easy, unless you really try to or had a big drop. Even the pegs it has is quite thick and stubby. There are indeed a lot more panel lines on the body, but they are not as well designed as on some valk toys with interestingf shapes and angled lines. The ones on the seeker look dense, but more static, but fits the content of a robot with more American aesthetics or appeal.

While the Alto Fast Pack has its issues, this quick photochop kind of shows the excitement I still have for it.

There you go. How about a quick photochop?

This trick sure works, after taking some time figuring out the 'clicking sweet spot'. I am not really sure if the toy was designed to have this click, since all the promo pics, ads, magazine article pics I've seen all don't tend to get this part right, you can see it from the wing connection and the tail fin overlapping the burner. Nor was it mentioned in the instruction sheet. Seems like its like the locking neck/chest tilt that works, but not sure if intended. As I realized with the locking chest/neck tilt, while it makes the torso more stable, it doesn't have enough clearance to angle (45 degree) the shoulder missile pods between the space of the shoulder and the wing booster. So need to position the missile pods pretty straight instead.

Just got my Alto Fast Pack last night. Took a little while to put them all on, and pretty much has similar issues with most people. Most parts fits on nice and snug, except the hip armor and boosters. The boosters are not loose, but I can see it get looser if I put it on and off more frequent. The hip pieces catch good, but pops off a bit too easy because the hooks on it to catch the grooves/holes on the hip is very shallow. Added a piece of double sided foam tape in each and they get stuck pretty good. Mine has some paint flaws, mostly a smudged paint spot and some tiny chips, but livable. The markings are very clean. While the parts attach snug in most case, it does add a lot more weight on the valk and made the figure less handle friendly. But it does look darn good. Just too bad the new chunky is slowly turning into a less playable piece with the add-ons. My Alto'c crotch connection was decently tight and gives a nice click everytime. But now with the armor added, the additional weight (wing boosters especially) is adding a toll on it, causing it to pop much easier than without Fast Pack. So for people that like displaying the valk in battroid mode, using that provided display stand may not be a bad idea. It supports the figure from the bottom of the cockpit block, lessening the weight on the crotch connector peg a lot. Might minimize premature wear on it, and make it a lot easier to grab the figure by the stand. And seeing how they designed the stand to give extra support in different modes (gerwalk especially), it looks like the super vf-25 is really meant to go with the stand, while hard to offset the weight issue on its own.

There is no way I would buy a non-articulated non-transforming statue of a valk. Simple as that.

1/48 for me. It just looks better to me in battroid mode IMHO. Wish it has the improvements 1/60 ver.2 has. But with all things considered, I'll pick 1/48 still. While improved, the 1/60 ver. 2 looks odd often on photos, partly due the the neck/shoulder and the overall skinny look. Like eugimon's cool shot here... While most of it looks nice, the shoulders look so small and in odd angles whenever it is posed holding something. And the skinny legs are not helping.

The newer CG valks tend to be a tad skinny like the SV-51, VF-25, VF-27....etc. But they don't necessary look bad or insect-like to me, with some look better than the others. Just different, and are all welcome additional variations in my book.

http://www.collectiondx.com/article/a_visi...hobbylink_japan Thanks to JoshB at collectionDX, we have an awesome article, interview, and a video tour of our favorited (or hated for some) toy source HLJ warehouse. Man what a trip! Wish I was there, and now I have a much better idea how my toys went from the shelves (drool...) to my door steps. Enjoy folks. And thanks again for all the work JoshB and folks at collection DX to put this together.

Very true. Though Max wouldn't have the nicer updated head sculpt as it does now, had it been a regular release that came out a couple years ago. At least the new head made this fan-favorite 1/48 even a little more special. I might have pass on it if it has the DYRL 1A head.

Cool. Good to know. Looks like eriku has a new toy to hunt down.

Don't get sick joy per se, but feel some accomplishment when I was able to tighten the diecast left crotch hinge, with the entire crotch block taken apart, as well as tightening the left hip ball joint. You might be surprised on what made it work. Dental floss and clear food wrap. But some areas are really hard to take apart, as the screw hole covers are very tight and flushed. Won't be able to get those suckers out unless you scratch and pry them open and damage the plastic.